For a number of years now, tremendous efforts have been devoted to devising systems for linking consumers with product and service providers which would allow the consumers to communicate and to transact with the providers from remote locations, such as from their homes. Such efforts have produced some systems which have received a small degree of acceptance. Examples include home shopping networks (such as QVC), home entertainment systems (such as DirecTV), remote stock transaction systems (such as Reuters), and automatic teller machine (ATM) systems. While these remote systems have gained some acceptance, there still is, for the most part, an absence of a generally and widely accepted system for conducting business from a remote site.
The failure of the presently existing systems can be attributed to a number of different factors. One possible factor is cost, both in terms of the providers' cost and the cost to the consumers. Currently, consumers are typically linked to providers not directly but through aggregators. The presence of an aggregator adds a middleman to the business process which in turn increases the cost to the consumers. High cost is a reason that many consumers hesitate to buy products through an electronic system. The reason that aggregators are necessary is that the linking systems currently used consist of complex, proprietary equipment which are expensive to operate and to maintain. The high cost of such a system presents a formidable barrier to providers who wish to link themselves directly to consumers.
Another possible factor for the failure of the existing systems is the lack of an overall standard system which can be applied generally to a number of different applications. The existing linking systems are, for the most part, application-specific systems. That is, each system is specifically designed to carry out a particular purpose. Typically, proprietary methodologies are implemented and proprietary equipment is used. Application-specific systems are usually effective for their intended purposes; however, they do have a significant practical drawback in that they tend to proliferate the use of a large number of different methods and systems. The problem with the proliferation of a myriad of methods and systems is that they force consumers to buy different equipment for each application, and to learn to use a different system for each application. This makes it very expensive for a consumer to be linked to a large number of providers, and it also imposes a heavy time burden on the consumer. Many consumers are unwilling to invest the money or the time needed to take advantage of the existing proprietary linking systems. A more general system, usable in a variety of different applications, would be more readily accepted.
High cost and the lack of a generally applicable system are factors which have contributed to the failure of the existing linking systems, but probably the most important factor is that of security. Many people inherently distrust machines and, hence, are reluctant to conduct important matters by way of machines in the first place. This distrust is only exacerbated by reports of fraud being perpetrated on electronic systems. In order to be successful, a linking system needs to ensure that user transactions and communications will be secure. This involves both verifying that the proper parties are conducting the transaction, and ensuring that information transferred between the parties cannot be intercepted and used fraudulently by third parties. Thus far, no generally applicable system which is cost effective and convenient to use performs this function satisfactorily. Hence, there exists a need for an improved system for linking users to providers.